Creepy Ghost Stories That Will Give You Sweaty Nightmares

#1: The Evil Doll

My mother had a large Shirley Temple doll when she was little whose eyes she says followed her, literally. She hated that doll, and it ended up buried somewhere, only to resurface when she was much older. She would not tell me the rest of the story until I begged her, and made me promise not to ask my aunt about it, and to not mention it again after she told me.

She gave the doll to my cousin. Why she did this, I can't imagine. She says that she had convinced herself that she was imagining things as a child herself, but seriously?

Anyway, my cousin is playing with the doll one day, when my aunt comes in and finds the doll TALKING to my cousin. So, she promptly freaks out, and takes the doll away. My uncle buried it, in pieces, as it continued to laugh up a storm.

That is evil.

I asked my aunt about it (against my mom's wishes), and she simply said, "I don't want to talk about it."

#2: Colonel Walker

My mother worked in a daycare that had taken over the wing of an old school and the building is notoriously haunted with the ghost of the school's name-sake and founder, Colonel Walker. The attic of the building was used as storage for the daycare and many people reported small, fairly unobtrusive events while being up there, things like boxes shifting around behind you, drawers opening on the other side of the room where you were, curtains suddenly moving, the feeling of someone else being in the attic with you. But the kids were the most in tune it seems. I know that lots of the kids talked about "the old man" at the daycare (which was staffed entirely by women), and I have definitely seen the kids react by all at once looking to the door as if someone entered the room when no one had. Personally, I always felt as if someone was walking directly behind me whenever I had to go from one end of the hallway to another and sometimes I would hang out in the kitchen waiting for my mom to finish up work for the day while I finished my homework or something, I often felt like someone was there with me (I spent a lot of time there, especially in the summer when school was out, helping around the daycare). The most famous piece of evidence of Colonel Walker's ghost was a picture taken at Halloween of all the kids in their costumes. Right in the back, standing behind the children and looking straight at the camera, is the watery and somewhat blurred face and upper body of an older man. Like, you don't even have to squint or tilt your head to make out that it is there. Now I know that it could have been some bleed from some other photos or something, but I think, given all the other evidence it seems they got the Colonel on camera.

#3: The Mysterious Photo

When I was a kid, my best friend and I were looking at old photos in his house. There was one of a family wedding, a group shot outside our local church. One of the men in the photo had no legs. Not like, was in a wheelchair or anything, but literally in the photo, his legs just stopped at the knee and you could see the huge old slabs of the church they even matched perfectly with the slabs that were on either side. It was exactly the same as if you were looking at a photo and looked at the wall above his head, rather than below his knees.

Now, I can't blame digital trickery as this photo was WAY too old for that (70s, maybe?). Maybe someone with a working knowledge of photography could explain it.

The weird thing is that the guy in the photo (my friend's uncle) ended up with diabetes and had both legs amputated at the knee years later.

#4: Great-grandma

My great-grandmother was very close to my mom and was apparently an incredible woman. She died before I was born, but my mom tells us a lot of stories about her. From the time my little sister was born, she's had a very strong resemblance to old pictures of my great-grandma and her whole side of the family. Once, when my sister was a baby just beginning to learn to speak, my mom was holding my sister on her lap, talking and playing with her. My sister reached up and took my mother's face in her hands (like my great-grandmother used to do to my mom when she was alive), looked her in the eye, and very clearly said, "You always were such a beautiful baby." My mother was shocked, but my sister, who was not yet speaking in full sentences, had gone back to making her typical baby sounds.

My mom told this story at dinner when my sister was about six or seven. This was the first time my sister ever heard the story, and she was a little freaked out. As soon as my mom finished telling the story though, my sister's eye twitched, as if she were winking.

#5: Confusion

Turns OUT that this woman used to live in the house and moved nearby, but since they didn't change the locks when they moved in, she kept letting herself into the house at night and gently petting my friends' mum as she fell asleep!

#6: Humans Can Lick, Too

A YOUNG girl named Lisa often had to spend time alone at home at night, as her parents worked late. They bought her a dog to keep her company and protect her.

One night Lisa was awakened by a dripping sound. She got up and went to the kitchen to turn off the tap properly. As she was getting back into the bed she stuck her hand under the bed, and the dog licked it.

The dripping sound continued, so she went to the bathroom and made sure the tap was turned off there, too. She went back to her bedroom and stuck her hand under the bed, and the dog licked it again.

But the dripping continued, so she went outside and turned off all the faucets out there. She came back to bed, stuck her hand under it, and the dog licked it again.

The dripping continued: drip, drip, drip. This time she listened and located the source of the dripping it was coming from her closet! She opened the closet door, and there found her poor dog hanging upside down with its neck cut. Written on the window on the inside of the cupboard was, "Humans can lick, too!!!"

#7: Buried Alive

Finally the doctor gave in and, together with local authorities, exhumed the body. The coffin was pried open and to everyone's horror and amazement, my great-great grandmother's nails were bent back and there were bloody scratch-marks on the inside of the coffin.

#8: The Clown Statue

The police arrive and apprehend the "clown," who turns out to be a midget. A midget clown! I guess he was some homeless person dressed as a clown, who somehow got into the house and had been living there for several weeks. He would come into the kids' rooms at nights and watch them while they slept. As the house was so large, he was able to avoid detection, surviving off their food, etc. He had been in the TV room right before the babysitter right came in there. When she entered he didn't have enough time to hide, so he just froze in place and pretended to be a statue.

#9: The Boyfriend's Death

A GIRL and her boyfriend are making out in his car. They had parked in the woods so no one would see them. When they were done, the boy got out to pee and the girl waited for him in the safety of the car.

After waiting five minutes, the girl got out of the car to look for her boyfriend. Suddenly, she sees a man in the shadows. Scared, she gets back in the car to drive away, when she hears a very faint squeak... squeak... squeak...

This continued a few seconds until the girl decided she had no choice but to drive off. She hit the gas as hard as possible but couldn't go anywhere, because someone had tied a rope from the bumper of the car to a nearby tree.

Well, the girl slams on the gas again and then hears a loud scream. She gets out of the car and realizes that her boyfriend is hanging from the tree. The squeaky noises were his shoes slightly scraping across the top of the car!!!

#10: Bride-and-Seek

BACK IN '75 a young couple, both 18, decided to get married right after high school. The father of the bride lived in Palm Beach in a mansion and was able to afford a big wedding for them. To make a long story short, they got married and the wedding was beautiful.

After the wedding they had a big reception in an old building and everyone got pretty drunk. When there were only about 20 people left, the groom decided that they should play hide-and-seek. Everyone agreed and the groom was "it." They all went and hid and the game went on.

After about 20 minutes everyone had been found except the bride. Everyone looked everywhere and tore the whole place apart looking for her. After a few hours the groom was furious, thinking the bride was playing a terrible trick. Eventually, everyone went home.

A few weeks later the groom, having placed a missing persons report, gave up looking for her. Heartbroken, he tried to go on with his life.

Three years later a little old woman was cleaning the place up. She happened to be in the attic and saw an old trunk. She dusted it off, and, out of curiosity, opened it. She screamed at the top of her lungs, ran out of the building and called the police.

Apparently, the bride had decided to hide in the trunk for the game of hide-and-seek. When she sat down, the lid fell, knocking her unconscious and locking her inside. She suffocated after a day or so. When the woman found her, she was rotting, her mouth in the shape of a scream.

#11: The Knife in the Briefcase

She thought nothing of him again until she and her daughter pulled into their driveway. She saw his briefcase and realized she had forgotten him! She opened the briefcase looking for some form of identification so she could notify him about his belongings. Inside she found nothing but a knife and a roll of duct tape!

#12: The Body in the Bed

A NEWLYWED husband and wife went to Las Vegas for their honeymoon, and checked into a suite at a hotel. When they got to their room they both detected a bad odor. The husband called down to the front desk and asked to speak to the manager. He explained that the room smelled very bad and they would like another suite. The manager apologized and told the man that they were all booked because of a convention. He offered to send them to a restaurant of their choice for lunch compliments of the hotel and said he was going to send a maid up to their room to clean and to try and get rid of the odor.

After a nice lunch the couple went back to their room. When they walked in they could both still smell the same odor. Again the husband called the front desk and told the manager that the room still smelled really bad. The manager told the man that they would try and find a suite at another hotel. He called every hotel on the strip, but every hotel was sold out because of the convention. The manager told the couple that they couldn't find them a room anywhere, but they would try and clean the room again. The couple wanted to see the sights and do a little gambling anyway, so they said they would give them two hours to clean and then they would be back.

When the couple had left, the manager and all of housekeeping went to the room to try and find what was making the room smell so bad. They searched the entire room and found nothing, so the maids changed the sheets, changed the towels, took down the curtains and put new ones up, cleaned the carpet and cleaned the suite again using the strongest cleaning products they had. The couple came back two hours later to find the room still had a bad odor. The husband was so angry at this point, he decided to find whatever this smell was himself. So he started tearing the entire suite apart himself.

#13: The Killer in the Backseat

The moral of the story: Always check the back seat!

#14: Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Light?

TWO DORMMATES in college were in the same science class. The teacher had just reminded them about the midterm the next day when one dorm mate let's call her Julie got asked to this big bash by the hottest guy in school. The other dorm mate, Meg, had pretty much no interest in going and, being a diligent student, she took notes on what the midterm was about. After the entire period of flirting with her date, Julie was totally unprepared for her test, while Meg was completely prepared for a major study date with her books.

At the end of the day, Julie spent hours getting ready for the party while Meg started studying. Julie tried to get Meg to go, but she was insistent that she would study and pass the test. The girls were rather close and Julie didn't like leaving Meg alone to be bored while she was out having a blast. Julie finally gave up, using the excuse that she would cram in homeroom the next day.

Julie went to the party and had the time of her life with her date. She headed back to the dorm around 2 a.m. and decided not to wake Meg. She went to bed nervous about the midterm and decided she would wake up early to ask Meg for help.

She woke up and went to wake Meg. Meg was lying on her stomach, apparently sound asleep. Julie rolled Meg over to reveal Meg's terrified face. Julie, concerned, turned on the desk lamp. Meg's study stuff was still open and had blood all over it. Meg had been slaughtered. Julie, in horror, fell to the floor and looked up to see, written on the wall in Meg's blood: "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?"

#15: The Hook-Man

When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook!